Building attracting insects in partnership with Beeproject Apiaries

Two beehives were installed on the rooftop at the Great-West Life building on Osborne Street last month. The insurance company partnered with Beeproject Apiaries on the project.

Sweet new tenants moved onto the Great-West Life building on Osborne Street two weeks ago.

About 80,000 honeybees started working at two beehives installed on the building’s fifth-floor rooftop at the end of June.

The insurance company’s desire to put the plants on its property to good use is behind the initiative, said Don Lecuyer, Great-West Life’s vice-president of corporate properties.

“We have a number of flowerbeds and plants on our premises that we look after. We thought introducing and installing beehives to help deal with the declining bee population in North America would be a good thing to do,” he told the Free Press Monday.

The insurance company’s desire to put the plants on its property to good use is behind the initiative, said Don Lecuyer, Great-West Life’s vice-president of corporate properties.

"We have a number of flowerbeds and plants on our premises that we look after. We thought introducing and installing beehives to help deal with the declining bee population in North America would be a good thing to do," he told the Free Press Monday.

The insurance company is the most recent to partner with Beeproject Apiaries, the Winnipeg-based organization dedicated to promoting urban beekeeping and educating Winnipeggers about the importance of the pollinators, even in the city.

The two new rooftop hives join about 80 others across the city, which are supplied by Beeproject Apiaries.

In downtown Winnipeg, there are about nine buildings that house hives, Beeproject Apiaries co-founder Chris Kirouac said. Bees live at The Forks and the University of Winnipeg, among other downtown locations.

Kirouac said the organization has been beekeeping in Winnipeg for about seven years.

"The bees do really well in the city. The bees like warmth, so they don’t mind that the city is a bit warmer than the countryside and they really love the diversity of flowers they get in the city, so they make interesting honey and the hives really thrive," he said.

Honeybees typically forage for nectar within a three-kilometre radius of their hive, according to Beeproject Apiaries.

Honey made by bees in the downtown core tastes sweet with floral characters, and when the bees start pollinating as the basswood trees flower, their honey tastes "light and summery" with hints of basil, Kirouac said.

The beekeeper added he expects the hives on top of Great-West Life to produce about 25 kilos of honey each.

While honey production is vital to what the organization does, Kirouac said its main goal is to engage the public in conversations about the importance of pollinators and the decline of bees globally.

"We rely on them for our food security," he said, adding that 30 per cent of food production worldwide relies on insect pollination.

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"That means without the bees and the work they do, we would lose some of our favourite foods and a lot of our volume of food, and that can do a lot to drive up prices and limit resources, so our hope is that these projects will engage Winnipeggers in conversations about how we can protect the bees."

Since bee populations have been negatively affected by human settlements and expanding urban centres, Lecuyer said Great-West Life’s hope is their small initiative can help to "rejuvenate" the bee population in downtown Winnipeg.

"It’s just us doing our little bit to help."

As for the honey, Lecuyer said some jars will be kept at the Great-West Life cafeteria when ready, but they plan to donate the majority of it to a local charity such as Agape Table.

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